Dr. Carol Shields completed her ophthalmology training at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia and fellowship training in ocular oncology and ophthalmic pathology. She is currently Director of the Oncology Service, Wills Eye Hospital, and Professor of Ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA USA.

She has authored or coauthored 11 textbooks, 335 chapters in edited textbooks, over 1800 articles in major peer-reviewed journals, and given over 860 lectureships.  The 5 most prestigious awards that have honored her include:

• The Donders Award (2003) – given by the Netherlands Ophthalmological Society every 5 years.  She was the first woman to receive this award.
• The American Academy of Ophthalmology Life Achievement Honor Award (2011) for contributions to the field of ophthalmology.
• Induction into the Academic All-American Hall of Fame (2011) for lifetime success in athletics and career.
• President of the International Society of Ocular Oncology (2013-2015) – the largest international society of ocular oncology.
• Ophthalmology Power List 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021 – Nominated by peers as one of the top 100 leaders in the field.  In 2020, Dr. Carol Shields was listed at #1 in the Ophthalmology Power List.

Each year the Oncology Service manages over 600 patients with uveal melanoma or retinoblastoma, and hundreds of other intraocular, orbital, and conjunctival tumors from the United States and abroad. She and her husband are the proud parents of 7 children, ranging in age from 21 to 33 years.

Dr. Jose Pulido, born in Cuba, was inspired to go into ophthalmology in medical school as he watched his father struggle with progressive vision loss. He has published close to 350 peer-reviewed ophthalmic papers, numerous books, book chapters, editorials and more than 100 abstracts. Sought after for visiting professorships and named lectures throughout the world, he holds more than a dozen patents, and has won many awards and high honors in the field of ophthalmology throughout his career.

Dr. Pulido’s research has focused on vitreoretinal infectious and inflammatory diseases, retinal degeneration, stem cells, genetics, checkpoint inhibitors, and immunotherapies.

Since being named Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology and Molecular Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in 2019, he has been on sabbatical at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

Dr. Pulido also holds visiting staff privileges at University College of London, Institute of Ophthalmology. He earned both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Sciences at the University of Chicago. Dr. Pulido completed his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine, was named chief resident while serving his residency at University of Illinois at Chicago and completed dual fellowships in ocular oncology at Wills Eye and vitreoretinal diseases at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Iowa and went onto complete his Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Donoso Endowed Chair, which Dr. Pulido now holds, is named for Larry A. Donoso, MD, PhD, JD, MBA who directed Retina Research at Wills Eye for more than a decade.

Kourous A. Rezaei, M.D., is an internationally recognized expert in the treatment of medical and surgical vitreoretinal diseases. He is Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of vitreoretinal fellowship at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Rezaei is a senior partner at the Illinois Retina Associates in Chicago. He is the founder of ChannelR (www.channelr.net) and course director of RETINAWS and Formula Retina. Dr. Rezaei is a distinguished inductee of the Retina Hall of Fame and is listed in the Illinois Top Doctors. He is on the Board of Retina World Congress, serving as President Elect and is on the organizing committee of the Florence Retina Congress (FLORetina), one of the largest retina meetings in the world. He has served as editorial board member for Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (IOVS), Retina Times (ASRS), Retina Today (BMC), and Eyetube. 

Peter Campochiaro is a clinician-scientist who is the Eccles Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He studies ocular neovascularization and excessive vascular leakage which occurs in age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusion. He utilized mouse models to help define the molecular pathogenesis of ocular neovascularization and excessive vascular leakage, including the roles of VEGF, HIF-1, and Tie2. His clinical trial group showed the benefits of inhibiting VEGF in diabetic macular edema and retinal vein occlusions. He has helped to develop strategies to provide sustained suppression of VEGF that are currently being evaluated in clinical trials. His laboratory also demonstrated that oxidative damage contributes to cone cell death in retinitis pigmentosa and this has also advanced to testing in clinical trials.

Ramin Tadayoni, MD, PhD, is Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Paris, and Department Chairman at Lariboisière, Saint Louis and Rothschild Foundation Hospitals, Paris, France. He is also the leader of French government funded RHU EviRed research program on artificial intelligence for diabetic retinopathy. He is a EURETINA board member, past President of the French-speaking Retina Specialists Club, and since 2017 elected as member of the French “Académie Nationale de Chirurgie”.

His main areas of interest include retinal diseases, vitreoretinal surgery, and imaging. He is the author of over 170 peer-reviewed medical and scientific articles and has made numerous contributions to ophthalmology textbooks. He has been an invited lecturer for many society meetings and was awarded the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement Award in 2010.

Professor Tadayoni was graduated as medical doctor and ophthalmologist from Paris V University. He completed his vitreoretinal fellowship at Lariboisière University Hospital, Paris. He also pursued his PhD at Paris VII University, and Paris Vision Institute. He was later awarded HDR, the highest academic degree in France. He is very committed to education and has the honour of having trained several clinical vitreoretinal and research fellows.

Professor and Chair, Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry
Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Strategical Head, Vienna Reading Center
Medical Director, Christian Doppler Labor of Ophthalmic Image Analysis

Biography

Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Eye Hospital, Vienna, Austria, one of the largest academic institutions in ophthalmology in Europe.  Professor Schmidt-Erfurth’s clinical activities include surgical and medical retina. Her scientific research focuses on the development of innovative diagnostic techniques in retinal imaging such as artificial intelligence and the clinical introduction of novel therapeutic strategies in retinal disease. She is the founder and scientific director of the Vienna Reading Center (VRC), an independent institution for digital imaging performing image analysis for over 800 clinical sites worldwide and also the clinical leader of the OPTIMA project, a Christian Doppler Laboratory for Ophthalmic Image Analysis. She holds several patents for the development of novel imaging analysis methods. She has published more than 460 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals and 14 book chapters and is the editor of the European guidelines for the management of retinal disease series edited by EURETINA.